why you stopped reading
Вставка
- Опубліковано 4 чер 2024
- Start building your ideal daily routine! The first 500 people who click on the link will get 25% OFF Fabulous Premium: thefab.co/answerinprogress
Why do bookworms stop reading? In this video, Sabrina explores why people who used to read a lot might not be able to pick up a book anymore. In the process, she challenges herself to read too many books in too little time.
SUPPORT US ON PATREON
/ answerinprogress
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
www.answerinprogress.com/news...
SOCIAL MEDIA
Sabrina
Twitter: / nerdyandquirky
Instagram: / nerdyandquirky
Melissa
Twitter: / mehlizfern
Instagram: / mehlizfern
Taha
Twitter: / khanstopme
Instagram: / khanstopme
CREDITS
Produced by Sabrina Cruz
Video Editing by Joe Trickey
Motion Design by Olivér Varga & Krisztina Varga
MUSIC
Epidemic Sound. Get started today using our affiliate link. share.epidemicsound.com/answer...
RECOMMENDED READING
Mental Illness Can Make It Hard to Read. Here’s Why - and What You Can Do (2019) by Sian Ferguson
www.healthline.com/health/men...
Why We Don’t Read, Revisited (2018) by Caleb Crain
www.newyorker.com/culture/cul...
The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens (2013) by Ferris Jabr
www.scientificamerican.com/ar...
The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction (2011) by Alan Jacobs
/ the-pleasures-of-readi...
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 local woman discovers books
00:17 u don't ReAlLy know mE
01:00 tab stash is a very good plugin for research
02:04 why you stopped reading
03:38 why i stopped reading
04:16 an elaborate excuse to buy a projector
07:04 reading vs emails | day 1
08:32 reading vs emails (reprise) | day 2
11:16 sabrina is an ipad baby | day 3
13:03 sabrina is also out of shape | day 4
13:51 paying the bills | interlude
15:05 good book! | day 4 continued
15:58 im sorry hank | day 5
19:06 how to read more books
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to the joke under the fold! Here's a novel one for you
I heard somebody died after reading a book... They were sentenced to death.
Leave a comment with the word SENTENCE to let me know you were here ;-)
I hope you liked that video! If you did, consider giving it a share.
*What's your favourite book?* Currently, mine is Why Fish Don't Exist but that might just be because I really hate exercise.
- Sabrina
My sentimental favorite is The Grimm Legacy, which I absolutely loved escaping into… in middle school. And then I really don’t have a favorite book, but a tie for my favorite series between The Red Queen and Throne of Glass, by Victoria Aveyard and Sarah J. Mass respectively. All fiction since I know for a fact that escape is what motivates me to read
I read Ender's Game about 50 times over quarentine, still my favorite book
The book that I read most recently, City of Brass - I was so immersed I was yelling about old nobles having too much time on their hands by the end of it.
The entirety of The Secret Series and the sequel series to the secret series
yes that is mildly confusing but i think its fine
Edit: i'm glad some people agree!
Random aside but... Audiobooks have been a huge gamechanger when it comes to readin for me. I cant focus intensely on a book and read it as an escape from all other input anymore. Thats sadly a skill i lost as a late teen. But if i put on an audiobook while doin something else it makes it so i can fully enjoy the book and not find my mind wandering as easily (and when it does i can rewind easily enuf) and it lets me focus my body on a task like walkin or chores.
The best part is i get almost all my audiobooks for free as libraries have decent archives of audiobooks nowadays; esp moreso if its a recent book.
“Damn, it sucks I haven’t read in so long.” -they said, just finishing the fourth 300,000 word fanfiction of the month
NOOOOOOO THIS IS WAAAAY TOO ACCURATE 😭
STOPPP😭
Ah the fanfiction rabbit hole. I know it well. ( its also a bit like digging for treasures in a pile of trash, which is always fun)
“Damn, it sucks I haven’t read in so long”, Do I say, just finishing this week the fourth 70 chapters of a poorly fan translated Isekai novel.
✋Stop calling me out
“Finishing a non fiction book is kind of just like…’ah I’ve done my homework now’” never heard something more true lmao 💀
I'd say the exact opposite. I looove nonfiction, am mostly bored by fiction.
After I finished reading whole local library of fiction for teens, I had a passionate switch towards non-fiction. Glad that I don't feel this way anymore.
@@elektra121 bruh you're a robot jk
@@dustinalecxander8647 Well, if you say so, I surely must be. Loving your life in little boxes?
you don't read a nonfiction book to finish it. You read it to gain insight and obtain the couple dozen useful sentences
I was a passionate reader as a kid, and loved studying english literature. But once I reached aged 16-18 I had a teacher who seriously doubted my ability, would publicly humiliate me in class, would make back-handed compliments about my work when I did well. I did below average in my exams and came away from education feeling like I'd failed. But I've read 7 books so far this year! I am making time to reconnect with it.
omg i'm feeling the same thing with my english teacher this year! i had an amazing one last year who encouraged me alot and made me fall in love with storytelling and writing, but the new one is so focused on matching the markschemes over going over my own analysis about the writer's work i feel really demotivated and frustrated. my grades hadn't dived too greatly yet but i sometimes feel myself losing my edge at times. but i'm stubborn about my love for it so hopefully i'll pass through.
sry if it became a rant but your comment just reminded me of it and gave me hope that it'll get better. congrats on finishing 7 books!!
It's truly horrible that such people who feel threatened by a teenager's enjoyment of "intelligent/sophisticated" hobbies can be allowed to have such a huge influence on them. That teacher was an immature asshole and they can rot for ruining something that you loved. I hope you continue to embrace your hobbies again and feel better about yourself ❤
I've read a book where there was a similar teacher. He ends up killed by a Snake.
Get that teacher out of your head! Rewrite that experience to empower you!
I'm sorry you had such a shitty teacher.
One thing I learned in college that always stuck with was there is no shame in putting a book down without finishing it and starting a new one if that book bored you.
Thank god someone said it. It makes me feel guilty
And I feel like reading _anything_ kinda gets my "reading momentum" going, to where reading a different book might actually be what gets me to finish the book I dropped/paused before
I learned that information reaching your brain is information reaching your brain. There's fundamentally no difference between reading Shakespeare for your English class, and finding it on Librivox and going on a hike- I got an A, a smiley face, and "I can tell you were really immersed in the story"
I will tell you a 'not-so-secret' about me that my kids can vouch for. When I was in 12th grade (1987), we had to read *"A Passage to India"* by EM Forester. I was always an absolutely voracious reader, but Passage to India was one of THE most boring books I've ever attempted to read. Five weeks later, I was still in the first boring ass chapter that described an ant crossing the road in excruciating detail. Finally, I gave up and just paid really close attention in class, took notes, studied my notes, and got an A+ on the test. 20 years later, having heard that story many times, my sons bought me a copy of that book for Mother's Day and told me to "finish what I started" like I always told them to do. This time, I made it all the way to page 110. And now, 17 years after that, I still haven't finished it. I recently told my granddaughter (she's 10) about it and she said, *"We can read it together, Abuela!"* Uhmmm, ... 🤔😔😭😭😭
This!
Not cheating. You said "5 books in 5 days", not "1 book a day for 5 days".
first reply after no replys after 6 months
@@vincentngo9186 Greetings. I had no idea this comment had any likes so this was a nice suprise.
The reply section is very interesting 🤔, lol
@@mudkipalpharius indeed
@@farhant.3214 Very much so
For me, school IS the reason I stopped reading. I’ve found that being assigned something makes it inherently unenjoyable and makes it feel like a chore. Reading was no exception.
I'd have to agree. Books like 1984 and Brave New World were assigned to me in school at a time I wanted to do literslly anything. I just read chapter summaries to get through the year. Now, 4+ years later, I've actually found that I want to read said books because its what I want to do, not because I have to. Forcing a teen to do something actively makes them loathe it. Allowing kids to find what books they like instead of forcing "classics" that are so mind numbingly boring in the youth is the worst thing you can do
That and also i feel like i don't find myself enjoying the books I want to read cause in the back of my mind I'm always thinking about how i should read something 'productive'
Same. For me it started back when I was in high school. My school used to assign the whole school books to read during the summer and write an essay before the school year started.
Personally I stopped reading when I got my first smart phone. I was a big reader and people till this day still think of me as a big reader even though I haven't read a book in years. This is honestly sad. The phone totally replaced my books and I hate it but I feel stuck.
But my point is that yes I agree with you, reading books for school made me sick of reading. I had really stopped reading while following my literary studies at highschool and having to read book after book for school.
The last thing I wanted to do afterwards was to start reading a book, so o definitely agree with you even though without my phone I would probably still be reading before every night.
same, when i read classics outside of school and they were fun, but as soon as it was assigned i couldnt stand read nothing of Goethe anymore
I used to read as a child, because I had literally nothing better to do. These days, reading more than a few paragraphs is exhausting due to a head trauma. Now I work as a seamstress, so I technically read for six + hours a day because I listen to audiobooks. I used to think there was something inferior about listening to books, but now I'm actually consuming more books than I ever have in my life. Work smarter, not harder.
And reading is so much more than the physicality of it! I have some audiobooks I want to listen to, but we'll see if I get to it 😅
I love that! In addition to physical books, I started buying audiobooks on CDs!
I can't seem to keep my concentration if I'm not reading it.
I have trouble concentrating on reading anyway, but if it's converted to an audio it would just keep on playing while I think about something else in my head
I learned how to sew in the last year and I also realised that audiobooks while sewing is just perfect! I tried audiobook whilst cooking/cleaning but it just did'nt work for me, I don't know why. But while seing / knitting/crochet it is perfect because I feel it's a slow-pacing hobby!
I do both now, I listen to audiobooks while owning the paperback. Sometimes I start the audiobook before or after, don't let people gatekeep how you read 🙂
It's been a year since I watched this video and since then I've read about 30 books. I forgot how great it felt to chill out and be completely consumed in a great story. Thanks for the reminder guys x
Hi today is day 1 imma start wit nonfiction wish me luck
@@hastalasopasequemo3645 how are you doing?
Hey, how are you faring? :) @@hastalasopasequemo3645
That sounds awesome. I have literally never been able to truly experience being completely consumed in a great story. No matter how good a book is, I read so slowly that it feels like a chore, so I am mostly focused on getting the chapter finished so I can take a break from reading and do something else.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention phones and social media as a reason why people stopped reading. Seriously, my attention span is completely destroyed due to social media. Our brains are being molded by the information dump that we get from pictures and short videos everywhere. Everything has to be instantly all the time, and that is making any activity that takes time and engagement a true hassle.
I’ve started downloading books to my phone for this reason!! unhealthy escapist coping through social media,, but it helps that I can have fast access to reading when I momentarily get sick of scrolling through whatever app has me in a brain dead daze.
ive thought about that too, referring how our attention spans may have a part in finishing a book. Because reading needs focus and patience, with how everything is instant nowadays and constantly ingesting information is rewarded through unlimited scrolling, maybe that's also a factor why trying to read a book nowadays can be a little difficult for some
exactly... i recommend occasionally setting one day aside where you don't use your phone/computer/tablet/tv. i did this recently and it felt weird but i liked the feeling of having a calmer, slower day. of course i love social media and technology, but the downside is that it reduces my attention span. so i have to take a break from it all sometimes.
I´m not sure if this is really part of the main problem. Sure, it seems like most people have a short attention span because of social media, including me, but i am able to write an 5 hour exam, i am able to play the piano for multiple hours or get focused on my work. But reading? In my 7 years of studying law (german system, including 2 years more or less practical work) i might have read 25 books. That´s what my fifteen year old me would have read in one year.
What i know from my parents and their friends, that´s not a new phenomenon. They were all big readers as kids and stopped in their late teens, years before social media was a thing.
I definitely agree with this but I also do like how having an app on my phone for reading is super helpful especially since I can enlarge text. But I wish more print books came out with large text editions because the light from the phone hurts my eyes sometimes.
No. 5: You spend so much time reading texts for your studies/education that you cannot fathom sitting down and reading after you're finally done with 6 hours of academic reading 😥
yeah!!!!! I read so much content for college and after I'm done I just can't read nothing else. I just wanna do nothing and let my brain rest a little bit lol
That sounds like it falls under “out of energy”.
Yes, in addition to the cognitive wear and tear, a big part of the physical fatigue I feel at the end of the day is eye strain from reading. Doing even more reading after that just adds to the problem
I’ve found that leisure reading is good training to build my reading skill that helps me get through academic reading faster. I’m political science so I read a lot of dense theory and old texts, and reading classics, creative nonfiction, poetry, and short stories is a fun way to practice that skill. If I keep up with leisure reading at least once a week I can get through my homework twice as fast.
@@alisonmcalistair I think it also highly depends on what kind of academic reading you have to do. Personally, I did global studies, so I had a lot of language theory. On top of that, I took a minor in identity and its connection with the written word, which often made it difficult to 'turn off' the academic reading mindset, since I'd either a) start analyzing the content or b) focus on sentence structure or word-choices. Of course, reading is like training a muscle, so it makes sense that reading in your free time will help you get through your academic work faster, I just think it really relies on your field of study in this particular case.
I got back into reading when people in my office started doing 15 minutes of reading together. I can't explain how useful comunal reading is
Hey, this sounds incredible, do you mind telling a little bit more about it? What is your field? Who had this idea? How was it organized?
Yeah we're a social species, there's a very strong instinct to do whatever people around you are doing
omg yes!! communal studying is also so great, last week my boyfriend and I did a study afternoon together and i was SO GOOD, he is a college student for much longer than i am and his rihtm of study is much better than mine, so he helped me to keep my focus and we bounced ideas of each other, it was great
Exactly what happened to me: a major traumatic event that sent me into a deep depression for 3 years. I hardly even used my phone during that time. Just work and sleep. I'm only now starting to come out of it and starting to get interested in my hobbies again
Good on you for working through it. I know from experience how rough that can be, and I'm glad you're starting to recover
Everyone on Twitter: She’s gonna solve wordle with ai!!
Sabrina: im trying to go back to my fifth grade reading skills where i don’t dissociate after reading 10 words
TBH i love it when she solves things with AI. It's so cool
TBH, you don’t need an AI to solve Wordle. It’s as easy as filtering a list of five-letter words with regard to letter frequency.
@@annyone3293 thats boring
It's a fun one to do with AI. I did it with NEAT.
@@annyone3293 that’s AI. Just old AI. Machine learning isn’t what determines if something is ai.
I too could read “a book a day” as a kid. Because I had no access to other entertainment and I’m not saying I hated my childhood but I see now it was a form of escapism. Probably the only reason I was able to get thru college too.
Me reading as much as possible just to be able to say I can read a lot bc I was kinda attention deprived
@Natalie good for you, honestly I have met grown adults who knew about the world less then me at age 8, and they had the access to the internet but never thought it educate themselves on topics they knew dirtshit about
Yeah books were such valuable escapism to me, but I havent been able to finish a book in years despite still wanting to love it. I used to go through books incredibly fast
I didn't realize that books were a form of escapism for me as a kid, and around 11-13 I stopped reading so much. It kinda clicked though why I read so much when I destroyed almost three 600 page books in one day when I was homeless after not reading much at all for years. Also, just so no one says it: yes, I still had internet access while homeless. I still had a phone and laptop and video games on that laptop. It had very little to do with technology in my case.
Exactly
This was a ridiculously relatable video. I used to read a book a day every single day after school. I was reading literally hundreds of books every year, but I stopped reading for fun completely after graduating high school. I've been trying to get back into it now that I have some free time over summer. One thing that I find to be a real challenge is just finding books I would like. YA feels wayy too kiddish for me, but I have no idea what to read in adult fiction and it's too much work to start books I don't like. I did start reading comic books though, and that's helped me get back into reading books. Good luck to all the other former bookworms out there.
Same! Reading was fun as a kid because the stories were fun and generally uplifting/happy. Adult books seem to be so...depressing? Idk I don't want to read a fantasy series about a 17 year old chosen one anymore, but I also don't want to read about the sad failure of a marriage. I want a slice of life that is kind of calm but also not boring but also not bogged down by the aches and pains of life y'know? I read A Gentleman In Moscow, and it's a great book that ticks all the boxes for me! A bit exciting because of the time period, but also no high stakes, and a heartwarming cast of characters :)
thanks for the recommendation@@gchungus
Look into the cozy fantasy genre to avoid sad but also avoid childish books.
The Secret Society of Irregular Witches is a good place to start.
Margaret Owen’s Little Thieves is a bit more high stakes but fun and playful.
I find a lot of friends’ recommendations to be great reads, especially when you figure out what sort of taste in books they have.
@@jessicaaustriaco friends' recommendations are great. I take a lot of tips from my mom. I have found the tiny genre of weird fiction and am enjoying it thoroughly. China Miéville's Kraken (action thriller set in London) or UnLunDun (fantasy about a kid but def worth reading as an adult, a lot of wordplay) or The city of dreaming books by Walter Moers. The Master and Margarita is a Russian classic that is a confusing mess but also fantastic. Winter's tale for a slower, more poetic fantasy about New York.
I studied publishing and editorial work as a "throwaway credit" during university and got a great method on how publishers actually decide if a draft eventually makes it to becoming a book that can also be used as a "layman" reader as well. Before you start reading, check the cover: 1. Blurps are made by PR people trying to sell you the book and more often than not they don't reflect the actual tone of the book itself. It will be blickfangy to get you in, but if it's well-written, it is usually a good first sign. 2. The more recommendations a book has and the more awards it is presenting on the cover, the shittier it will be in my experience, so be cautious. Good stories sell themselves.
Once you opened the book, read the first sentence. The chief editor, if the first sentence doesn't stir anything in them, will bin the entire draft - this gets rid of about 80% of drafts at a publisher (in Hungary at least). If it's hooking enough, read the first paragraph - then the first page - then, if you have time in the bookstore, the first chapter. Through this, you should have enough sample to know if this book is worth your time or not.
If you don't have much time, read the first paragraph, a random sentence from the middle and one from the end (maybe the last sentence). If these 3 doesn't make you curious about what's going on, put it back.
Non-scientifical +1: I never had a good smelling book with a shit story in my hand. I gave chance to many REEKING books, but they never lived up to it sadly. Something just...smells different about bad stories.
“When I hear things, don’t know where it goes!” Is my entire experience with audiobooks haha
I also love that every former gifted kid had that one series they consumed in a ridiculous amount of time
harry potter for me lol. i finished all the books in about 3 1/2 days
Series of unfortunate events was mine
I had multiple: Percy Jackson, Legend (Marie Lu), the Young Elites... jesus, I was obsessed. Oh, and Ruby Redfort.
lmao warrior cats. did i really spend that much time in my childhood, reading about cat clans fighting each other? well xD
@@effy652 yesss warrior cats was amazing
“Is it a problem if I don’t want to solve it?” Famous last words of every high schooler who has an English assignment due in 5 hours.
Ah, but the problem will only be there for another 5 hours. After that, it'll be a completely different problem.
@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 problem metamorphosis.
well you know what they say, if you’re not failing, you’re passing
i feel so called out right now
@@pippin7016 GET OFF UA-cam AND DO YOUR WORK
I’m still a very avid reader… of fanfiction. One of my favorite fics has over ONE MILLION WORDS AND 305 CHAPTERS. And I love rereading it occasionally. I have so nearly 600 bookmarks on AO3. Fanfiction takes plots and characters I already love and mixes it up and makes it new
What I like about fanfics is that you don't have to get into a new world with new characters, history, rules, etc., because you're already familiar with it.
Sometimes new things can be exhausting, so it feels good to dive into something you already know.
What fanfic has the 305 chapters?
@@scottishemu159 Ashes of the Past by Saphroneth. It’s very good, it’s over 1 million words iirc. He’s started posting it on AO3 in smaller, easier to read chunks!
That's true; I read a 100k+ fanfic in three days but still it took me a month to get through a 220 page anthology 😅
Oohhh are u an avatar fan??
I noticed this while reading Moby Dick for the first time, I kept having like a weird voice in my head going "you are going to be tested on this" and I had to remind myself that I am reading for fun. It's safe to say that the approach of schooling to reading is catastrophic.
Also in school they made us read at our reading level and not whether we were ever going to be interested in it.
Like they have books for adults with lower reading levels who want to read about detectives falling in love in Milan, because if you're a full grown adult reading 4th grade books about 4th graders, you'll go mad. When you're a kid though, you're expected to read these books about old people. When you want to read books about kids your age doing kid things, you're chastised for not reading at your skill
I think I actually read as much as I ever did.... just not books. Articles, documentation at work, video game flavour text... anything but books. It's always reading in service of doing something else.
"video game flavour text" - you might probably enjoy the Ready Player One book. It's way too different from the movie and it got me into the zone very swiiftly. That is, if you know you enjoy dystopian novels/movies.
@@Astra3yt I would honestly disagree with that. It has a plethora of video game references, but it doesn't read like video game flavor text. It's just a sci fi book, and if they don't enjoy other books, they won't enjoy it any more.
been also reading a lot for past year . . . blogs and documentations on programming stuff
I read interesting U.S. Supreme Court (and occasionally lower court) opinions for fun. It's something I learned to enjoy when I had to do 100-200 pages of them per night for a single course in grad school.
does reading youtube comments count? 🤣
17:45 "I still have life outside of reading. And it's pretty hard to escape into a book when you are *vividly* aware that that life is still going on."
It's not that I don't have time, it's that I _feel_ like I don't have time because I'm stressed by what I'm not doing.
Thissss
Real💯
Yes.
I feel the need to give you an offering because you just PREACHED!!! Amen, and YES!!! 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾
I am a community college instructor, and because of time, I, too, turned to audiobooks, but I love that you mention pacing. I recommend it to students because it has always worked for me. I even remember the reading better. There is a great deal of academic research that supports this.
That hazy feeling you get after finishing a book you were fully immersed in is what keeps me reading. While listening to this video I started to crave it but I am not entirely sure why it keeps me reading, maybe it’s the sense of accomplishment.
Am I crazy? Is it just me? 😂
Off I go to read a book!
Read to broaden horizons in ways you can't expect, the reader lives a thousand lives while the non-reader only lives once. That's how I feel about it.
"my fiction reading ability has never really progressed past my Percy Jackson and The Olympians phase" Sabrina, you're winning. There is no progression past that phase
nah i was like, wait youre supposed to go beyond that? i read kinda regularly and about 60% of the time im probably reading something ive already read
@@james__anna_burns4885 There’s so much to say to this Topic.
People just dont Read OR WRITE enough.
I tried telling Teens i know Tiktok decreases their attention-span
and i tried a lot online and offline to get Kids and Pre-Teens to try writing some Stories and become Noob-Authors, but it does not work enough.
Writing and Reading are such amazingly valueable skills; if those had never existed, the World would look drastically differenct.
@@nenmaster5218 lol this is why wattpad exists
I decided to reread the percy jackson series at the beginning of 2021 and it was got me back into reading for myself. finished 2021 with 41 books read (':
@@meredithsanderson6808 That is a very good series;
so good that I'm very proud whenever people donate those books after having read them OR EVEN COOLER:
Just buy a whole bunch of them for Children around their Neigbourhood.
Whenever I’m in a reading slump I choose from one of two categories:
1. I either read a children’s book
2. Or I read a raunchy, cheesy romance book. You know- the ones with the shirtless guys on the front
This usually gets my brain used to reading again without overworking it.
@EvaDietz instruction unclear subject stuck on step 2 forever
I do the same, but I combine the two categories and go for ya romance
I tend to enjoy books for younger audiences myself rather than adult books too. I don't know if it's because it's easier to digest or if it's because it's much more fantastical. Hard to say
ever read the Barbra Cartland novels? So silly and cheesy period pieces
@@angelsartandgaming I do enjoy them too from time to time--I'm past the phase or stage of life the characters are in so it's kind of looking back with a wider more independent, self-responsible perspective...and a lot of what YA audiences deal with doesn't exactly go away but changes as you age (relationships of various levels, healthy eating vs eating for fun/emotions, physical condition vs. will power to move around, politics of the personal, etc).
I know that the way kids books are written vs adult literature, kids books have a more vested interest in getting you to continue to read. Shorter chapters, more riveting content etc. adult lit tends to be more introspective and slower on the uptake. I’ve completely transitioned into reading journals, essays and news articles. I feel sad because I love the idea of reading novels but I also just can’t get through them. I prefer non fiction now.
Librarian here with thoughts!
1. Yay Libby! Support your local libraries because we support you!
2. Listening to audiobooks is absolutely also reading, whether you're looking at the words at the same time or not.
3. For day three my tip would be if your mind wants to wander off (to your phone/work/etc), give it a toy to play with instead. For Sabrina this ended up being pacing that tiny hallway, but it could be instrumental music or a literal fidget toy instead if you find that works for you. For me, giving the part of my brain that wants to wander off something to play with keeps it from pulling the rest of my brain away from the task at hand (reading).
4. I totally anecdotally agree that narratives go faster than nonnarrative books; if you want to feel that sense of accomplishment of finishing a book without it taking days and days (and weeks and months and...) I also recommend novellas, graphic novels (also books! and they go super fast), or YA (often have a larger typeface so they go faster by default, plus typically less difficult language than many adult books). Lots of action/adventure/suspense can also keep the pace moving in a way that makes you motivated to read more, but ymmv with that because every book and every reader is different.
Why I stopped reading: 3 words.
Undiagnosed, untreated ADHD.
What was once my escape and hyperfocus as a child and pre-teen became a concentration-sapped chore once I got to the academically demanding years of later high school and college. When I was 10 I had the reading comprehension of a high school senior. Now I'm 3 years post college grad and my brain just feels ruined.
That’s 3 words, right? Anyway not the point, sorry your ADHD has made your reading difficult.
oof same
Not to mention any distraction can potentially derail the entire thing if you do manage to get immersed
This is a bit too relatable
That's three words 🤔
Also you're probably right, mine was "Diagnosed but willfully untreated ADHD" and I went though the same experience.
i used to read so much when i was child and it recently had the realization that i havent picked up a book for fun in a decade. i finally found out that im a sucker YA/romance and im so happy to be reading again!! also i missed Answer in Progress ily guys ur the best
Also a sucker for YA novels
So true. I've spent years trying to read non-fiction and a small amount of 'traditional' adult fiction, but have got reading again in the last year or so by accepting that I'm just a massive fantasy nerd and reading adult fantasy and loving it.
I think that starting with a few shorter books probably helped, too.
I forgot that YA means young adult and legit thought you meant yaoi for a second since it has gotten very popular so I was like “oop- 😳 you do you boo!” Then I realized 😭😂
(But even so, you do you :)
@@stadi7992 same lmao
YA fantasy/SciFi will always be my favorite 😍
When I went to college in 1993, I decided I wasn’t going to watch tv but experience the many great things incorporated in college. At the end of that school year I thought: if I go to September it’ll be a full calendar year. That went on for 19 years, in which time I read quite a bit, but also did a lot of meaningful things. When I married 19 years later, I made the concession to get a tv and stream for my wife, who loves to knit and watch things. UA-cam also became a factor. I virtually stopped reading in deference to low hanging fruit, and frankly: the past decade or so have been a much worse time for my mental health, and life-fulfillment in general. I really miss those years of disconnecting from the media of the time and entertaining/educating myself through reading, hobbies, and making music. This video has brought that vacuum back to my attention, and perhaps I need to challenge myself again…. I was a better person during those 19 years than I am now, and I want to be a better person.
I’m like you, I used to read nonstop growing up. I wasn’t allowed to have a phone even though they existed when I was a teenager, and books were my escape from reality. I stopped after high school.
After watching this video, I went and renewed my library card, and checked out some librarian recommended easy reads to get me back into books, and I’m so glad I did. I get so lost in these books and when I stop reading, I’m looking forward to when I get to keep reading so I can find out what happens. I go through almost a grieving period when I finish a book, and I miss the characters. My screen time has halved since I started reading again.
TL;DR Please give books another chance, and read at a pace that’s comfortable. It’s not a race to the finish, enjoy the time you spend reading.
Idk about for others, but I stopped reading for pleasure because of guilt while I was in college. Anytime I'd go to pick up a book, I just felt guilty for not studying or reading a textbook. It also made me feel childish because I felt that as an adult I should be reading more advanced books for education. . . .so instead I watched cartoons all day and ignored reading altogether for years. That didn't quite work out the way I wanted it to
Same, I studied chemistry which is so broad that I always felt guilty for not studying. But I've been out of school for a decade... not sure what my deal is now.
Same
@@bjhouse817 I had the same problem, I studied psychology and it's so engrained in everything that it's like a never-ending pursuit trying to learn it all. The only way that I've managed to get back into reading was by diving into it further once my degree was finished. And now somehow I'm in the middle of studying Dostoevsky and Confucius because philosophy was the foundation of psych. Idk which subjects combined to form chemistry, but you may have fun reading about older versions of chemistry and its history to better understand the things you know now
@steven that's an excellent idea!
Story of my life... Now I'm trying to read again and I did succeed to read a few books last year knowing that "I should have done something more productive" but that's an illusion, I'm productive in my own way when I read what I like.
as someone with ADHD, listening to the audiobook whilst reading the "physical" book helped me SO MUCH with my ability to read for longer periods of time, more consistently and just overall to enjoy reading more
Same. I’m very likely undiagnosed ADHD and discovering audiobooks was something that really helped me for sure. That’s multi-stimulation really helps me
Same
Oh so not just me? :)
Same except I don't read along with the text. I found out I can focus way better if I'm multitasking. Like, I'll be listening while I'm grocery shopping and get two things done at once!
I am also ADHD and my favorite way to read is also listening to the audiobook while following along with the book. I think I’m also like the gal who made this video in that it’s hard to focus and comprehend just audio
For me, the big killer to my reading was university. I went to get a degree in humanities (art history, philosophy, lit studies & linguistics), and having to routinely read so many pages of such complicated material just burnt me out... and left no desire to read even more in my free time. Like my eyes and my brain were just so tired all the time. However, one semester as I was writing a paper, I got into this rhythm of reading some fiction I was interested in *as a treat* during my lunch breaks. So I would read, research and write all morning and afternoon, but interspersed it with my 1 hour lunch break during which I'd grab some cafeteria food and read how ever much I could of my fiction book. Really surprised me how well that worked. I think it was the routine (getting used to it!) plus the mental framework (looking forward to it as a treat). Anyway, great video, you inspired me to do my own reading challenge now with some novels I've had lying around for way too long!
you paid money to have people tell you about art history and linguistics? 😅 lmao sorry
What helps me a lot as well is finding a community and/or book club. A friend of mine organized a very relaxed small book club after graduating and it not only helps us stay in contact, but also highly motivates me to read more because I have people to talk to about said books:)
"The complexity and depth of the characters, was honestly.... confusing"
We stan a queen being this vulnerable in public
She is the main character and I accept that. She has helped me get my life together in so many ways 💜
"It's pretty hard to escape into a book when you are vividly aware that life is still going on."
That is actually one of the reasons why I stopped reading :(
I didn't want my hobby to become something like a chore
Yeah that's true. Reading should be something you enjoy like watching tv or playing video games.
@@tonyp9313indeed.
That’s also true, since time is in your way and videos are more consumable.
I will never forget how this video pulled me out of my reading slump of 4 years, on an unexpected 1 am of my life. Thank you❤.
It’s kind of funny to reflect on what killed my love of leisure reading. I went to university and then became a humanities teacher. I spent so much time reading for my job that by the end of the day if I had downtime, I didn’t want or have the energy to read anything else. Between researching material to make my lessons, reading student work, and emails, I just didn’t have anything left in the tank at the end of the day. During the school year I’d be lucky if I finished 2 books of my choosing. Over the summer holidays I’d binge read. Now that I’m not teaching anymore it’s still hard to get myself to read, as I still am reading all day long for my job. However, I’m getting back into it slowly. I’m definitely going to try some of these “treatments”! I love audiobooks on my commute, so maybe trying some of the other ones will help me too.
I used to beat myself up a bit over how I used to be such an avid reader, but wasn't anymore. Eventually, I realized that I *_do_* still read, all the time. It's just moved to the Internet. Now, instead of reading books or magazines, we're reading web sites, or reading Facebook, or reading Twitter, or reading Reddit, or reading emails, or reading text messages, etc. I don't think we should be concerned that we're *_not_* reading; I think we should be concerned about *_what_* we're reading...
Wow man never thought this way
Woww you're completely right
Yeah but thats not the kind of reading that makes you smarter.
@@ymaysernameuay1113 it really depends. The internet allows us to have contact with many different perspectives and cultures, which can stimulate our critical thinking
reading helps to lengthen your attention span which scrolling on twitter etc definitely doesn't soo I wouldn't say it's the "same"
I think what’s helped me is not feeling pressure to read “mature” books. I don’t try to force myself to read nonfiction or novels with complex characters. I enjoy YA fiction, if I want to read a book made for 14 year olds, I will.
lol! I go even younger than that. If I want to feel better, I indulge in Roald Dahl, the kids' books, not the adult short stories. I felt a little weird reading Pratchett's 'Nation', but then got sucked in and realised I didn't care. It is so important to read books that you connect with, whatever the reason or intended age level.
Good for you for reading what you like! 😊
@@tammyd.970 I read too much fan fiction
Im sort of the opposite, its sort of weird. Reading nonfiction doesnt feel like studying anymore, so now when I do occasionally read its history or science related.
But also I totally see how you got where you did too. I remember reading Warriors when I was 12 and I would totally read about those cats again at 25... damn that was half my life ago.
@@starofaetherius oh my god I have half a bookshelf filled with Warriors (named Warrior Cats in my country)! I even met one of the authors, Victoria Holmes, when I was 10 years old. She came to my city for a reading and I got an autograph in one of my books. It was a lovely experience. I really need to re-read the whole series, I adored it when I was younger.
@@atherapists3331 you can never read too much fan fiction as long as you enjoy it!
Omg I relate to you SO HARD!! Thank you so much for making this video. To be honest, I put off watching it for some time, because of the guilt I've had about not reading. I'm also glad you mentioned being a former gifted kid - I like that it feels like there's a bit of a community of people with that history. It really has had an impact. When I mention to people I've struggled to get back into reading as an adult, the response is usually "Really? You seem like the kind of person who would read!" and that just doubles down on the guilt and shame. It's like it's a matter of identity rather than activity. Anyway, I'm also really inspired that you made it through the 5 days. Honestly, I didn't think it would be possible lol I guess because of my own expectations of myself. It makes me really hopeful that if I have the right reason, the motivation, and organise my day to make time for it, and perhaps find the right environment to do it in, I could get back into reading, too. That would be amazing. Thanks!
00:16 as soon as you said, "so,it is the last day" . I got disappointed because it felt like I was watching a movie , like I was on this journey with you , as a kid I loveddddd Reading . It was such a pleasure to get lost in the story and honestly I miss that nd all this while I was getting excited as you were getting into habit of reading. I'm doing this now , I'm reading 5 books in 7 days ❤
I understand this feeling. It’s like, ‘a 300 page novel’, no thanks. A 200,000 word fanfic, hells yes. I feel like I don’t have the energy to learn new ‘universes’
omygosh yes. i haven't pick up books in years because i find it exhausting nowadays but i lost sleep reading longgg fanfics
THIS. I got a discarded copy of Game of Thrones at the library and started it but halfway through I didn't WANT to learn all the lore. I have enough "lore" to keep track of in my real life.
That word choice really hits
I can definitely relate. Just my working theory, but I do wonder if fanfics make our interests last longer by keeping us in those worlds longer. When there’s a really good book with no fanfiction, there’s only so many sequels or so many times you can reread without needing to give it a break and move onto something else
@@vivianneven I can't speak on general interest, but as someone with aspergers I can say that while it provides extra content to enjoy during a hyper-fixation it usually won't elongate the hyper-fixation past what just engaging with the original media over and over again would.
I'm shocked no one here has said they stopped reading out of pure mental exhaustion from college years, I read so much for my degree. it was all good stuff, I liked the books so much I kept most of them (english lit, native am lit, anthropology, various topics in creative writing, literary journals)... but i was so drained from those years in general i just wanted to lay still for the next 10. reading is not hard for me, but it doesn't excite me the way it used to. I read articles and I research when I want to understand practical things. if I didn't have to do anything at all, and i could devote time to doing nothing, long enough to feel recovered and re set.. and then do more nothing until I felt bent on finding a focus...then I think i would want to read.
I really enjoyed the experiment you have here, setting a time constraint is probably the only thing that would get me back in the habit.
My attention span is so short I gave up reading your comment half way in lol
You are right on the money here! I loved what I read in college but it was draining. Now reading feels like homework unless it's literally the same author/series I read when I was in middle school.
The same thing happened to me. Even when I did have time to read for fun, I was already doing a lot of reading for history classes and such, so I would just be tired of reading. Now that I'm done with school, I still treat reading like a homework assignment. "I'll just read one chapter today.... I still have three pages left?? I'm almost done, gotta force myself through...." Becoming obsessed with anime and manga probably didn't help my falling out with reading, either. But this video makes a good point about reading the right books. It's been a while since I've read novels for pleasure and I am therefore out of practice with reading in that way, so Dune was probably not a good choice for a comeback title.... Before, I think the most complicated books I read were the Lunar Chronicles.
@@elouisecc This is exactly it for me. Throughout all my years of school we always got reading assignments. I was never the kind that liked homework, it was always intolerably tedious, so I just learned to associate reading with boredom. It didn't help that 95% of the books we read were some of the worst, most pretentious garbage that has ever stained paper. It eventually got to the point that I just stopped reading entirely and just used sparknotes for book summaries. The last book I read fully was A Catcher in the Rye. It was easily the worst thing I've ever read and I consider it the straw that broke the camel's back.
Yeah it’s kind of like how going to the gym to get fit feels like a chore, but going on a hike for fun tires you out just as much in a fun way. It’s about having intrinsic motivation to do the thing, ie have fun instead of gain a reward from someone else.
Also, everyone, neurodivergent or not, has a mental budget or a number of spoons they can use in one day. When you’re reading for work you don’t really have anything left once you get home and have time for fun.
I think you hit the nail on the head with the reading takes energy and concentration. When I get home from work I don't have any of that left. I was sick and home alone for a while this winter and managed to get through all of Bulgakov's collected works... I got so inspired I borrowed a Kafka (used to love Kafka 10 years ago) but never managed to even open it.
Great video! I put off watching because I was pretty sure I was going to come away feeling bad about myself. But I'm so glad I took the time to watch it and you took the time to make it 🎉
One thing I’ve noticed about my reading habit is that it hasn’t gone away, it’s morphed. I spend obscene amounts of time on my phone, not watching social media or videos, but reading on a q&a site and reading on wikipedia or random stuff I look up on google. I love to find new stuff to read on my phone, and digital books helped with that. What has happened though is that I have less transit time to read (on the subway, for example), so i find myself reading around tasks I can do in autopilot. I’m not reading 20 books a month like I did as a teen, but I’m probably close to the same amount of reading, even if the actual content I’m reading is different.
I do the same thing!!
"20 books a month" waw
This is so true. Everytime I'm watching a show or on UA-cam or social media, i think to myself, "i should be reading"
This is me!
Also weird she didn't touch on fanfiction, or video essays bc theyre supper relevant to the topic
Saw the Mutual Aid book paired with Hank Green's novel in the thumbnail and knew I had to jump in. I relate heavy to the struggle of bookworms just going illiterate as we get older so great topic choice as usual!
Sameeeee
I’ve started a job as a teen librarian and I’ve just now started reading again. Two books later, I had fun!
I'm someone who also enjoyed reading back in the day, and I kinda feared that I now became someone not enough intelligent to read and concentrate overall (yeah that's my bad self-confidence), but actually I know that it's mainly because I now have mainly other entertainment types, and I got less used to reading books, but I know that it's not exclusive only to books. For example, I rarely watch series and movies, except when I'm with my family, so when I've tried to watch something this felt kinda similar.
Are we the same person? Because honestly seeing Hank's book is what lured me into watching this
@@dianamart.239 Same tho
in reaction to 17:56. The ending to the Inheritance Cycle (aka the Eragon books) made me cry like no book before or since, so I totally understand the feeling
3:22 Thank you so much for this piece of info... As simple as it may sound, I had no idea that my taste in books may have changed from when I was a teenager. I'm in a much happier place and I no longer feel the need to escape. I really wouldn't have thought of trying books that speak to my adult motives!
LEGIT. I used to read like "adult" books and have not been able to read for about a year now and I picked up Percy Jackson in an effort to get my little sister to read and flew through it.
Same with Percy Jackson books! They’re so good 😭
Rereading Percy Jackson was how I got out of my years long reading hiatus too. It's not only nostalgic from my childhood but just a great well written book with complex characters & a compelling storyline.
I feel like books targeted to younger audiences, tend to be less hard to read, because the purpose of writing them is to make them "fun" not to make you think. I like books that make you think, but..... "fun" books are what I read in my free time.
I also tend to use them to learn languages.
The title "I read 5 books in 5 days" wasn't as good as "Why you stopped reading". This new title absolutely worked for me! Keep up the great work y'all!
Same!
Same
Yaaaaaaaaaaa me too
Yo what the heck I’m shocked my comment got so many likes! Thanks y’all!
Great job! This was so fun and interesting to watch! :)
Love this vid and all the helpful info! I find that keeping a set of 3 books in rotation - of various genres, pace, and page count - helps with the mid-book boredom or angst to start a new one/DNF the current. 😊
The biggest thing for me that killed my drive to read recreationally was late high school through university. suddenly I was spending hours a day reading for assignments, and the last thing I wanted to do after trying to crush 4 chapters of my textbook was to pick up a novel and read. It forced me to turn reading, something I loved, into work, and I haven't been able to break that connection yet
i feel that. for me it was reading one too many tedious books i had to suffer through and not wanting to subject myself to that again.
Nothing ruins something fun like doing it as a job.
Yeah I just commented the same thing. Lost the joy of reading with summer reading requirements in early high school.
Finished my first book this summer, Star Wars novel and I had a blast. Also realized that watching the movie before the book kept me so engaged!
Reading assignments with deadlines is murdering my joy for reading. Trying to get back into it now, but it's hard when picking up a book reminds you of grades and a matter of success or failure :( so many essays...
College was exactly this, and for me it carried through to grad school. All fun reading was guilty because it wasn't school reading, and school reading was also guilty because I was always so behind on it. Now I have a job and the fun reading is still guilty because I'm not studying for professional exams lol
Okay, as someone who's been running an internet book club for the past 10-ish years now, a few thoughts!
1. Fanfic, manga, audiobooks and comics books ABSOLUTELY count as reading. It might not be the traditional reading most are used to but it counts. Don't let people tell you otherwise.
2. I don't know about anyone else but non-fiction was always harder to read than fiction. I've been reading for decades and only found maybe 2 non-fiction books that sucked me in. *Shrugs*
3. Around Nov 2020, I downloaded a productivity app that basically locks me out of my phone for a set amount of times and while it's hard for the first few times, it helps A LOT. Sometimes, being on your phone is like just snacking all day on a bag of chips. Are you hungry? Not really but it is there so why not? Find your method to unplug and it helps.
4. Be honest about what you want to read. Much like Sabrina said about enjoying yourself being important, if you're not enjoying what you're reading, it's gonna be hard. Read what you want!
5. Goals/Challenges absolutely help, especially if you're competitive like me, lol.
What's the productivity app called?
cool
Great Response!
Hi! Would you mind sharing your internet book club?
I don't really see how you audiobooks count as reading unless you're reading along.
That 5th method is how I've been reading my Bible every day!! It's worked super well for me, I've gotten distracted way less often 😄
what 5th method?
@jeanlauret9727 listening to an audiobook while reading along, it really helps with focusing your mind!
Oh the irony, that it's been 2 years since i added this to my "watch later" playlist, and it's been just sitting there ever since
I used to read for the escapism. My home life was so fked up. When I finally moved out on my own I just wanted to live like a normal person so reading felt like I was missing out on life. It is a complicated thing to have loved reading so much because it was how I survived, but to resent reading because it symbolizes my lost childhood.
I completely agree. I went through a depression which left me wanting to escape. I used watt pad for years and then stopped for a couple months and then I used kindle for a year and I’ve stopped for another 2 months right now. I have found that I love love love romance books but they always make me feel bad afterward. I think the best thing to do is find healthy habits. I do resent it a lot because I missed out on most of highschool. Thank you for reminding me not to get pulled in. I was about to read another romance book and decided not to. I do think books like that are addicting because the dopamine and you miss out on life.
This! 100%.
I never thought about this before, but this examplains a lot... I used to read not to feel lonely, but now have youtubers for that (jk)
Same!
Yessssssss
I feel like Sabrina really said “let’s just show off how old school of a nerdfighter I am” in this video with the nathan zed shirt and the green brother books
This comment takes me out😂
Also, 'Why Fish Don't Exist' is a book John recommends in one of his book videos.
DFTBA
Good production, funny vids! Love it
Reasons I found for not reading books-
1) Social media: It reduces your attention span. Concentrating on a book seems like a tough task.
2)Anxiety: You are always worrying about you life, future. Reading feels like a wrong thing to do in your busy life.
3)Wrong motivation: If you want to read to brag about reading, you'll most likely feel exhausted.
My answer to why I “stopped” reading: work. Once I needed to be a “real adult” 24/7 I could not read anymore. No time or energy to read anymore. The corporate life is BRUTAL. 😔
Saaame. First found western comics and japanese manga as easier-to-digest alternatives.. But I eventually got too burnt out for those as well.
Same, I can't afford to hyperfocus the same way anymore even though I don't have kids. I used to be basically dead to the world while reading (at a really high speed), but as an adult there are so many little things you have to pay attention to all throughout the day. You can't just skip meals and ignore chores in the evening, while as a kid your chores usually ended in the evening after house chores and homework and you could use that time however you wanted as long as you got enough sleep to wake up in time to get to school. ...being poorer doesn't help either: I have to spend more time on reducing long term costs, while one can just not bother with a lot of money saving chores if one can afford to for instance throw money away on takeaway food, not having to repair clothes, and so on.
I don’t wish that hell on anyone. I don’t see why we don’t just boycott anything corporate.
4HL blues.
This is why I'm terrified of life after school. I won't be able to do anything anymore because of work. In that case, I'd rather stay unemployed.
i got into reading again when i gave up trying to read "smart stuff" to convince myself of something and went after the trashy, fast food grade novels
Same. I tried to force myself to read an autobiography of Steve jobs. Who did I think I was. I found it so dull. I realise that fantasy novel trilogies are my sweet spot
I like to read fun and trashy stuff and save the more literary or heavy stuff for audiobooks that I can listen to while resting, taking a hot bath, or going outside
I love how serious yet motivating serious this video is!! I learned + laughed! My favorite type of video
This was such a fun video and I love both your humor and your approach to information sharing ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The feeling she had in that last book is the feeling I had when reading as a kid, and the feeling I miss having so much. I would get so immersed in the stories that the world around me would completely fade away, and it would feel like I was watching a movie as my imagination took over and I could see every scene and character move in front of me. It is magical. It's a feeling that only someone that has felt it before will ever understand.
My parents would complain that they would call my name and I wouldn't listen. When I paused reading because I had to go do something I sometimes would even forget who or where I was for a brief moment. I miss having that much imaginative power, that much time, that much magic in my life.
Books are amazing. If you have ever felt this before, you know what I mean. And if you haven't, I encourage you to try.
Beautiful comment & so true
the harry potter books have always felt like coming home to me, and getting lost in them is incredibly easy...it feels akin to being in the pensieve and SEEING the book play out like I was IN the novels...I think that's why inkspell was such a heady experience for me
I've gone back to reading kids/YA books for that reason. They're written to make reading as easy and fun as possible, which is what I need when life is hard. Also, with my depression and anxiety, I can't handle the stakes and tension that most adult books have (which is a problem I have with movies and TV, too).
@@pendlera2959 yesssss me too! i love kids' books, movies, and TV shows!! it's not 100% of what i read/watch but it's a lot of it. i like the fact that kids' stories are more lighthearted (but still interesting).
i love this comment and yes, i know the feeling! it's what i often felt as a kid, because i read a ton of books back then. i recently started reading again because i miss that feeling. (i still read kids' books!) reading forces your brain to concentrate a lot, and if you read a good quality book with a story you love, your brain concentrates so much that you get absorbed into the book!
I actually kinda love the “it’s good” reviews lol. I spend a lot of time on booktube & goodreads where there are so many strong opinions on books that it makes you question your taste/your favorites. Sometimes it’s just good 😌
I know two words feel assuring.
This video is such a helpful tool for me, and so compulsively re-watchable. I think this is my 3rd time going through it. Needed the refresher as i have set the goal for myself this year of reading 40 books for a challenge.
You are so adorable :D Thanks for taking us on this journey
Another aspect I find interesting is how Fan Fiction works. I too used to read like crazy as a kid, and too find it hard to read new books in adulthood, (though I’ve still been trying to and succeeding read such books for the most part every couple of months, even if it never feels to the amount I consumed as a kid). However I’ve been able to read fanfic almost constantly for over a decade now. And I think a big part of it is both the flexibility in breath of most stories - short, medium, large - plus the serialisation aspect of fanfic, with some authors updating larger stories, like one might watch a tv show.
But it’s also the low emotional energy it takes to get into a new fic. You already know the characters and can use tags to curate your fics and know a good bit about the story before you get in. It’s hard to generalise the fic experience but fics still have the great ability to explore new concepts in interesting ways, and are excellent in character studies, as you are diving even further into people you already had a solid enough understanding of from the source material.
But it’s also low effort for great reward; you already love these characters and worlds, so reading is like greeting an old friend and getting to know them better, rather than being dumped into a new world with new people and having to figure out who you like, or hate, or trust, out of them.
That’s not to say reading “regular” fiction books is not important nor fun, but in a high stress life, fanfic is an old reliable to me and an easy, low brain-cost de-stressor.
Fanfic is certainly not for everyone, but it is very interesting and I think there are many things we could learn from it. Books will never not be important as a whole, but I think there is a lot of untapped potential in the flexibility, accessibility, tagged curating and creativity from stories not trapped behind the ability to be published or be marketable.
yo holy shit you explained that perfectly. this has definitely been my experience
You put the thing into words!
This is so true
This!!! Soooo much! When I had to describe why I have no trepidation starting a Fic the length of a Harry Potter book, yet I struggle to convince myself to start a new series when the books are the thickness of a pamphlet.
It came down to... not having to put emotional investment into brand new characters and settings, without knowing if they will pay off. Yet, with fanfics? They're a brand new playground for my favorite characters to be in! I already love the characters, And usually the setting, now the author just has to have a writing style I like and I'm golden!
you nailed it. great explanation of why I have so many store-bought, library-borrowed books waiting on my shelves but I can read fanfic without trouble!
"You woke up late because you're burnt out."
As a former gifted kid, aren't you used to being SENTENCEd to burning out? All former gifted kids are burnouts.
even if you haven't been properly productive, and therefore have no reason to be tired, in years.
@@molotovmafia2406 bestie that's either adhd or autism. As a former gifted kid i wondered why i felt like this for years before i got diagnosed
@@mclark8857 I was like, "wait, what??" Then remembered i have ADHD 🤦♀️
I feel attacked
We're all neurodivergent and masking like hell :)
I love this format. You're funny but not over the top. And I appreciate all the references. Thank you!
Love this video a lot. Thanks for doing this because I often forget how much I really do love to read.
I feel this. I also went from devouring books as a kid to not reading at all...then the pandemic hit and e-readers were on sale, so I got back into reading fanfic. Physical copy of a commercially available book? Meh. Fanfic that's longer than the Bible? Sure, give me a week (or two). Accepting that reading is reading, even if it's not a published author, has really gotten me to enjoy doing so again!
Same! I'm trying to read Song Of Achilles atm and while it is really good, I struggle to read more than a chapter at a time and pick it up again later. But when I find a good Fanfic I only stop reading once my eyes can no longer stay open
Definitely. I do read... but only fanfics about characters I already know and am invested in. I just have no energy to start from scratch and have to get to know new characters and universes that I might or might not end up liking.
Wow this really hit me. You’ve given me something to think about.
i love fanfiction. chronic pain and school messed up my energy and concentration, but reading (usually short) stories about characters and worlds i am already familiar with is way easier. it also helps that fanfiction usually doesn't use complex writing styles and narrative, like the books school expects us (a bunch of 16 year olds) to get through
i think the reason to this is more so the idea behind fanfiction and books. for reading a book, i have a preconceived idea that i need to make time, not be tired enough, be comfortable, not be stressed. for fanfiction my only requirement has been, life sucks im stressed let's forget i exist. of course, fanfiction is rarely "longer than the bible" but i can read many many small fanfictions enough to be one book. i think one aspect to start reading again for me would be to break the perception i have
I definitely feel that the issue is the "right book" - I'm a grad student and I read SO MUCH, and lemme tell you that there is 0 energy for a nonfiction book at the end of the day. if I don't have to read it and it isn't brain candy, it's gonna sit there (at least till I graduate)
Even when I still liked reading I had this problem. I actually had a romance novel that I HATED that I would keep on me to motivate myself. It made me consider what I'd read next and it would serve as something to do when I didn't plan ahead. It was also an excuse to not read whatever the required reading was during language arts as even reading something I despised was better than reading something for school.
i'm happy I found your channel. I needed to watch this video. this is really informative and I needed to watch to this. ♥️
I started really reading again about a year ago. I now read 2700-3000 pages a month. What you're doing is way more per day. It's like you said I think small changes, not forcing yourself and choosing what you like. I try reading 2-3 completely different books next to each other and any moment I pick what I like to continue. And yes, I alternate with doing fun stuff with my kids or friends, with gaming and watching youtube or a nice series.
One tip is also to drop any pretenses of "good" or "bad" reading. Read what you enjoy, don't read stuff you don't enjoy because it's a "proper read". If you like reading only fantasy books, do that!
When you get in the habit there will be room to explore things you usually don't read.
@@Kazenikatze me when I read ao3 fics
Yes! As a teenager, we are forced to read certain books for classes. Then later, forced to read articles and books for college and work.
Read became an obligation, with time limit and pressure. Not fun at all!!
I decided a while ago to do exactly what you mentioned: read whatever I like, even though people "might judge" as a teen book. And I liked it!
You are what you feed your brain though…
Plenty of good ideas and philosophy in "frivolous" books, particularly scifi novels that can cover themes and ideas that literally can't even exist in our contemporary world yet. Like the morality of mind uploading/emulation. Or how disassociating near light speed travel with time dilation and 30 year journeys between stars can be, or what types of cultures may form as a response to that, like the Ultras in Alistair Reynolds work.
They became disconnected from human society at large and become like their own faction of humanity, because they spend all of their time aboard lighthuggers traveling at 99% of the speed of light, living in a totally separate time frame from the rest of humanity.
Smut here we come lmao
I realized I was picking up books I wanted to want to read - like self-help or bios or educational reads, but would never finished them… it was a chore. Now, I’ve come to realize I can fly through a book if it’s mystery, suspense, or fantasy. Know your genre.
I always feel like I should read very smart, ambicious books. Either about sciene or classical literature. Which in the end causes me to have 6 month long periods of not reading at all. So now I decided to pick up a couple of books at once. I still want to read about philosophy anc classic books, but I will read something super simple about witches and vampires along with it. I donät fall out of the reading train, I get to enjoy reading and still slowly plough through the books that are harder, but still important.
@@corkaczarownicy Oof i loved the classics as a kid i read a lot of them and sometimes id reread some of my favs at least 10 times like moby dick, Anne of green gables, Tom Sawyer, adventures of huckleberry finn, the secret garden, little women etc but now in my teenage years i still love them but I haven’t read them as much as i used to which makes me sad cuz their one of my fav types of literature(idk im a sucker 4 the old things XD) but since im taking ap literature in 12th grade(aka nest semester) i kinda have to read them again lol but I’ve been wanting to after sometime so its a win win! But for the most part i read anything and everything but my most fav genre is psychological thrillers/horror! And i do the same exact thing you do with picking up a lot of books at once my locker at sch is jammed bc of that bad habit XD🥲i keep telling myself im gonna finish some and stop adding more but i dont know how at this point 🤣😪
@@Tansymist You'll figure it out. One thing I learned is to sometimes let the book go and just dnf it, if it doesn't pick my interest. Good luck😘
I've found that nonfiction books that follow a narrative are much easier to read -- something like "The shallows" by Nicholas Carr
audio books 👌 and Headway
Congratulations on your success considering such outlandish expectations. It is impressive and awesome to see you take on challenges and achieve what you said you set out to do. I am very proud of you (I hope that doesn't sound condescending). Well done!
I FELL YOU GIRL!!!!!AMAZING VIDEO ❤
I recently picked up reading again. My tip for anyone wanting to start reading again is to just hold the book. Just hold it. The idea came from how often I pull out my phone whenever I have an idle moment. So, instead of reaching for my phone out of boredom, I just open the book that I have in my hand. I don't know if it'll work for everyone, but boy if it hasn't worked for me!
because of your pfp i will take this advice
@@spidergoon5315 How could anyone distrust this face?
Its hard to break the muscle memory of reaching for the phone. I like your idea
Ah, the series about doing something for fun while life always ruins it.
This video inspired me to give reading a try again. I'm only a couple of days in, and not as ambitious as you were, but a chapter a day seems a good place to start getting back into it :)
I’ve struggled to finish books over the last few years, slowly reading less and less. I think part of it was university, the textbooks I had to read were generally the books I would have read for fun, so it stopped being fun.
At the end of last year, I was telling colleagues that I have struggled to finish books this year so she can me a short children’s book (sign by author too) as a way to say I can actually finish books. Which in a way I felt like it saying it’s alright to read easy books to re learn to like reading again.
I'm a professional writer, and for the life of me, I could not read for years. Then I read NK Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy and The Song of Achilles. Actually changed my life a little.
OMG that trilogy is absolutely incredible!!! ❤️❤️❤️
The Fifth Season is one of the best Fantasy books ever written.
Augh my heart still hurts after reading Song of Achilles last year
im 16 and i aspire to be a writer one day, but i have this same issue. i write ALL THE TIME but i have the hardest time reading and its very frustrating, reading is something i used to love and cherish deeply (i also grew up an only child with really busy parents so reading always kept me company)- i hope this video helps me get back on track! what’s your name btw? i’d love to look up your work! if you don’t mind.
I've been meaning to read that trilogy for like a year now lol. According to my brother-in-law it's not good but he also fully admits to not liking female authors period so I'm just gonna ignore him completely...
I replaced physical books with fanfiction somewhere around the age of 15. Holding a book about an original character that had all these literary rules and merits just reminded me too much of the ridiculous amount of reading assignments for school and put me off of it. Yet I would always still read 200,000+ word fanfics online with ease and still do cuz no one is gonna make me write a paper on a fanfic.
me
Me too, plus fanfiction is free and doesn't require traveling to the local library.
This is one of the reasons I've ended up getting into e-books this year.
The thing about fanfiction vs getting into a new kind of thing is like
why would i care about these new characters when i can go back to these old characters that im already emotionally invested in
i could get emotionally invested in new characters but that requires effort - and even if i do, sometimes, it just won't stick
my brain craves fanfic the way people can eat the same meal for days or wear the same sweater for years if they love it - the familiarity is comfort and comfort keeps me from doing work
Reading fanfic is equivalent to being on Tiktok for me. If you’re spending this much brain power on garbage, might as well stay on social media.
this video is outstanding!
You are so nice and charismatic! Really enjoyed this video!
I cannot properly express how much I enjoyed this. SO MUCH.
ME TOO and also WOW IZ HARRIS HI!
Big fan of you and Johnny!!
thank you 🥺 👉👈
It's good!
"My fiction reading ability has never really progressed past the 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians' phase." I feel you girl.
Great video! I'm in this exact same situation, so it's nice to see it addressed.
I think another factor might be other forms of media now having narratives comparable to books? The frequency of longer-form media, like TV shows or video games, having well-executed narratives almost makes books redundant, in a way. You get the text, but paired with visuals, music, actors, etc., all of which can contribute to storytelling in ways that books just don't have access to. This has always been the case of course, but it's only relatively recently that production values have gotten high enough in other media to make a world comparable to what your imagination comes up with while reading.
Also, weird thing, but your speaking cadence and style of humor reminds me a lot of Brian David Gilbert, particularly his Unraveled series on Polygon. Very different subject matter, but just as engaging. Great job!
This was very interesting, thanks for doing and sharing your experiment
Having to read "high" literature for school and having to analyse it killed my joy in reading for a while. It returned, but nowadays having a job that already requires a lot of reading plus having kids there is not much energy left at the end of the day.
I think this is what ruins reading for most kids at an early age. The negative association of books with homework and quizzes.
SAME. I studied English literature. Graduated in April and haven’t read a book since. I mean, I tried but I couldn’t read for longer than 20 minutes. I do hope my habit of reading comes back.
YES! Plus heavy papers each week for my major just made it worse. I still buy books but I can’t bring myself to read.
Try audio books!
I'd definitely say school killed my love for books. For a kid with ADHD, being forced to slog through boring yet important books my love for books completely disappeared... Or so I thought. I'm a sucker for a good fanfic, so it seems as though my interests are grabbed in a universe I'm already aware of, and in shorter formed long content. Same for writing... Which is odd. Maybe I need to pick the habit up, but I'm going back to school so...
Yes!
I love reading and i absolutly HATE fanfic with every bit of my being
@@jescoheinen161 You either haven't found the right one, or are being hell bent on the idea, that it becomes impossible for you to like it 🙂
To each their own, but there's been great fanfics written, people have fantastic imaginations
@@hellboy30098 Like when i watch movies shows read books or other stuff i can only like the cannon. Like if something is made by people that hav eno say what is real it just becomes like fake to me and i cant enjoy it
same situation here. I love reading and used to read while brushing my teeth or walking down the stairs. but now, especially this year, I have so much school assigned (literary) reading and it feels like every time I want to read I need to read one of those books. so then I just read nothing. I know a lot of literary books are great, and I want to read and enjoy them, but with the level of concentration and reading level you need for it.. I just can't do it. I already have trouble concentrating on books, I skip sentences when I read or i get distracted, but with my lack of practice it gets harder and harder.
Ok I just found your channel and I love it. Thank you for the great content!!!